Baron Karza: Michael Golden

Acroyear: Joe Prado

pencil layout and Commander Rann: Geof Isherwood

Marionette: Mike Krome

Bug: Pat Broderick

Colors by Laura Martin

My parents gave me Micronauts #26 for Christmas in 1980, igniting my interest in the comics hobby. The cover featured Nick Fury grappling with a Hydra agent. I didn't know who any of them were, but the Darth Vader-looking guy seemed pretty cool. I soon acquired back issues #1-25 to catch up on the story and was amazed particularly by the art of Michael Golden and Pat Broderick. Dave Cockrum's memorable cover to issue #1 combined elements from Tom Chantrell's 1977 Star Wars film poster and Jack Kirby's cover to Fantastic Four #49.

In the process of commissioning a few jam pieces, I discovered that it's best to shoot for one new character at each convention, or better yet, give time for the artist to work between two conventions. (Though in this case I was able to do more than one at one con.) So this piece took over a year to complete.

Geof Isherwood studied Dave Cockrum's original cover and provided a pencil layout at Heroes Con 2023; look closely at his additional image to see the pencil rough. He also did a great job emulating Cockrum's art for the central inked figure of Commander Rann.

Michael Golden normally only accepts commissions for ink headshots these days, but he agreed to do the hands as well as the head for Baron Karza. He achieved impressively flat blacks without any streaking or variation in tone; check out the black and white additional photos. I unfortunately forgot to take his photo with his work. He and Joe Prado completed their work at Heroes Con 2023 as well. Joe chose to make Acroyear's head fins shorter than usual.

Mike Krome was at Dragon Con 2023 a few months later. His portfolio showed he had the ability to render attractive but not overly cheesecake women characters, and he blended his style well with the others already done.

For the final figure of Bug, I wanted either Pat Broderick or Butch Guice, both of whom had worked on the original Micronauts series. Pat turned out to be available first, at Heroes Con 2024.

That completed the figure work, so Laura Martin took it home from Heroes Con and delivered the final colored piece to me at Dragon Con 2024. I've long admired her work over John Cassaday's art on Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men run. My scanner makes color art look a little more red digitally than it does in person; the colors are more true in her additional photo.

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